Messaging App Hike In Talks With Tencent Holdings Ltd To Raise Funds

08 Jun. 16, BENGALURU: Messaging App Hike is in talks with China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd to raise new round of funding. The company is looking to be at par with the sector leader, WhatsApp.

According to sources and reports by Mint, two persons were ready to speak about the matter under the condition of anonymity in which, one of them said, “Tencent came to India on its own and invested several million dollars in advertising and promotion, but was unable to make any dent in the market. Given that, it thinks partnering with a domestic player gives it access to a captive customer base that it can leverage. It has identified India as a key market for growth.”

The company recently raised funds of around $90 million from Tiger Global and Bharti SoftBank (joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s SoftBank Corp).

Hike was founded in 2012 by Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of billionaire Sunil Mittal. The company, which is operated by Hike Ltd. has roughly about 100 million users, in which 90% of them are from India. Hike became one of the most popular messaging apps in the country. However, it’s been overtaken by Facebook’s WhatsApp which currently has highest number of users across the world.